Fintech Investment numbers in Africa has dipped , guess who is picking up the slack
In 2022, Fintech investment numbers slowed down from 56% of the overall investment in startups in Africa to 38%, even though overall numbers have gone up from $4.84 billion in 2022, a 7.62 percent increase from $4.46 billion recorded in 2021(disclosed deals). I don’t necessarily think it’s a bad thing, as diversification is good in the long run.
The categories that have picked up the slack are Cleantech, Logistics and Mobility.
Clean tech has made a 10 point jump from 5% to 15% of total deals in 2021 making it the highest upward climber raking in 72 million USD.
Logistic climbed up from 6% in 2021 to 12% in 2022. The most prominent companies in this category are Kobo360 which has now raised a total of $27.32 million in funding across 4 different funding rounds
Also, Kenyan startup Sendy which offers on-demand door-to-door package delivery services, across 2 major funding rounds, Seed and Series A, has now raised $8 million in venture funding.
Mobility doubled its percentage by moving up from 4% in 2021 to 8% 2022. One the most prominent deals in 2021 was Nigerian mobility-tech startup MAX, that landed $31 million in Series B round, to expand across Africa.
I am not surprised with the cleantech increase as investors have had more money to spend in the space. Example, development finance institution and longtime sponsor of Women in tech Africa, FinDev Canada pumped US$ 13 million into the Energy Entrepreneurs Growth Fund (EEGF) in January. EEGF invests in early and growth-stage energy startups in sub-Saharan Africa.
There has been a large number of clean tech focused VC’s on the continent in the last two years
Additionally, in 2021, African Development Bank invested $20 million in Evolution Fund III, a pan-African clean and sustainable energy private equity fund targeting renewable energy projects in sub-Saharan Africa. To put it plainly more money has been made available in the space.
I am however worried that spaces like agri-tech and health tech, where women tech entrepreneurs traditionally congregate, seem to have stagnated. This might be the reason why according to Briter Bridges the number of deals to all female founders has marginally decreased in 2022, though the total value as a percentage of the total remains unchanged “. Including a couple of huge deals (over 100m) that have skewed the numbers, women only teams have raised 4.9% of the total funding that came into the ecosystem.
We all need to remenber 4.8bn USD which the total raised in 2022 is still only 1% of the world global venture capital
Does Fintech make a strong comeback in 2023? We live to see…
Source : Briter Bridges